A Preliminary Discussion on the Connection Effect of Technological Progress and Sustainable Development

Traditional technological progress-based sustainability concepts tend to overestimate the potential saving effects. Efficiency improvements also affect the demand for resources and energy, sometimes, it can cause an increase in resource use, this is the connection effect. This paper provides an overview of some of the studies that confirm the existence of the connection effect, presents expansions in order to show the potential relevance of the connection effect. First, the overall effect of an increase in energy efficiency on total energy use depends on the assumptions about the substitutability between the services considered and the direction of the income effect. Second, technological progress can have a large influence on energy use as many time-saving devices require an increase in energy consumption that is frequently reinforced by a ´connection effect with respect to time´. In the end, provides a suggestion for the introduction of energy taxes.